The 
Kentucky Highlanders 

From 
A Native Molintaineer's Viewpoint 



By 
JOSIAH HENRY COMBS 

Member of the American Folk-Lore Society 




THE 
KENTUCKY HIGHLANDERS 

From 
A Native Mountaineer's Viewpoint 



By 
JosiAH Henry Combs 

Member of the American Folk-Lore Society 



J. L. Richardson & Co. 

LEXINGTON, KY. 
1913 






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Gift 



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APOLOGIA 



"The Kentucky Highlanders" was published, in part, 
in Tom Watson's Jeffersonian Magazine, for March, 1912. 
With the permission of this magazine it is here published 
in full. My only apology for publishing a brochure of 
this sort is an attempt to correct, what is in my opinion, 
some erroneous impressions under which the outside 
world has long labored, with regard to the Kentucky 
Mountaineers. 

In my discussion of religious conditions in the moun- 
tains, I trust that my Primitive Baptist friends in that 
section of the state will be fair-minded enough not to 
consider it as a thrust, or a challenge. Further, I would 
add that the contents of this brochure have reference, 
not especially to the towns in the mountains, but more 
particularly to the outlying sections. 

I would be ungrateful if I failed to acknowledge my 
sincerest thanks to the following friends, for their assist- 
ance in the preparation of this brochure : Dr. Hubert G. 
Shearin, Professor of Old English, and of English Phi- 
lology in Transylvania University ; Dr. A. S. MacKenzie, 
Professor of English and of Comparative Literature in the 
State University of Kentucky; Clarence Campbell Free- 
man, Professor of English Literature in Transylvania 
University; Senator H. H. Smith, of Hindman, Ky. ; 
Roscoe C. Kilgore, of Hindnlan, Ky. ; Mr. Desha Breck- 
inridge, Editor of the Lexington Herald ; to my mother, 
Mrs. John W. Combs, and to Mr. Monroe Combs. 

J. H. C 
Lexington, Kentucky, 
September, 1913. 



To 

Hubert Gibson Shearin 



SUBJECTS TREATED 



PAGE 

Origin, Extent and Nationality 7 

The Scotch-Irish Theory 9 

The Scotch Highlander Theory 10 

Old English as a Theory 12 

Folk-Lore and Philology as an Argument 14 

Old and Middle English 16 

The Mountaineer's Personality and Hospitality 17 

The Women of the Mountains 19 

No Social Castes 21 

Born Lawyers and Politicians 22 

Decay of the Feud Spirit 24 

Old English Customs and Superstitions 26 

Coquetry and Flirting Unknown ' 30 

Folk-Lore and Balladry 31 

The Mountaineer' s Religion 36 

The Educational Outlook 39 

What of the Future ? 43 



The Kentucky Highlanders 



THEIR ORIGIN, EXTENT AND NATIONALITY. 

44 T T IS (the Covenanter's) race had defied the Crown 
I — I of Great Britain a hundred years from the 
^ ^ caves and wilds of Scotland and Ireland, 
taught the English people how to slay a king and build a 
commonwealth, and, driven into exile into the wilderness 
of America, led our Revolution, peopled the hills of the 
South, and conquered the West. 

"The breed to which the Southern white man be- 
longs has conquered every foot of soil on this earth their 
feet have pressed, for a thousand years. A handful of 
them hold in subjection three hundred millions in India. 
Place a dozen of them in the heart of Africa, and they 
will rule the continent unless you kill them." 

These words from the pen of Thomas Dixon, Jr., in 
"The Clansman," may be somewhat overdrawn and far- 
fetched. They are quoted here, however, because the 
Kentucky mountaineers are of that breed which is spoken 
of as "peopling the hills and conquering the West." 

An area of nearly thirteen thousand square miles of 
mountainous country extending northeast and southwest 
along the eastern part of Kentucky; ridges and peaks 
rising from an altitude of from five hundred to three 



8 The Kentucky Highlanders 

thousand feet ; comprising a population of more than 
four hundred thousand ; with an area of coal beds suf- 
ficient to supply the world for the next half century, be- 
sides large areas underlaid by excellent clays of several 
sorts, commercially important deposits of iron ore and of 
ochre, superior sand for glass-making and other purposes, 
proved fields of oil and of natural gas, pure limestone for 
iron furnace flux, and stone well suited for structural 
purposes ; the reputed pre-historic dwelling-place and 
scene of sanguine encounters between the Atalans and 
Cutans, Telegans (long-headed mound-builders) and 
Apalans (round-headed mound-builders) ; the Istacans, 
a Mongolian race ; the Huasiotos and Zulocans. 
This is the land, and this the people about whom so 
much has been written during the past fifteen years. Yet, 
with such a long chain of history (?), and with such a 
pedigree. United States Senator "Jo" Blackburn once 
said, in a heat of political frenzy, that a stick of dyna- 
mite ought to be put under this section to blow it into 
hades 1 

Now, since the writer is a Kentucky Mountaineer, 
both by birth and by adoption, he seeks your indulgence 
and pardon in attempting to add to the long list of those 
who have discussed the social, political, economical and 
anthropogeographical status of the Kentucky mountains. 
Much has been said by various writers concerning the 
descent and nationality of the Kentucky mountaineers. 
Fiske, the historian, says they are of Scotch-Irish descent, 
and that their fore-fathers came down from Pennsylvania 
into the Southern Alleghanies early in the history of the 
Republic ; Thomas Dixon, Jr., in "The Leopard's Spots," 
and also in "The Clansman," calls the Southern high- 



The Kentucky Highlanders 9 

landers Scotch and Scotch-Irish ; Dr. Guerrant, of Wil- 
more, Ky., a whole-souled and good old Presbyterian 
"missionary" to the mountains, and President Frost, of 
Berea College, without any reserve whatever, class the 
majority of the mountaineers as Scotch Highlanders. 

The prevalence of a number of Scotch and Irish 
cognomens in this section no doubt has prompted the 
above writers to reach their conclusions in this matter. A 
saner view, and, in the opinion of the writer, the only 
correct one, is taken by Ellen Churchill Semple, writing 
in the Geographical Review, June, 1901. Here the view 
is taken that the great majority of the Kentucky high- 
landers are of pure, Anglo-Saxon or old English extrac- 
tion, with a minority of the Scotch-Irish, largely Teutonic 
in origin. We are confronted, then, with three theories, 
as follows : 

1. Scotch-Irish. 

2. Scotch-Highlander.. 

3. Old English, or Anglo-Saxon. 

We shall use the two methods of reasoning — the Destruc- 
tive and the Constructive, and class the first and second 
of the above theories under the former of these methods, 
and the third theory under the latter, or constructive 
method. 

the SCOTCH-IRISH THEORY. 

The prevalence of such names in the Kentucky moun- 
tains as McCoy, McDowell, Mcintosh, Mclntyre, Mc- 
Guire, Campbell, Calhoun, Callahan, Duff, and a few others, 
has given rise to this first theory. Dr. A. S. MacKenzie, 
Professor of English and Comparative Literature in the 
State University of Kentucky, declares that the term 



10 The Kentucky Highlanders 

"Scotch" is out of the question, since it is a brand of 
Scottish whiskey ; that no such element as "Scottish-Irish" 
exists; that the term "Scotch," or "Scottish-Irish," is 
unknown both in Scotland and Ireland, and is spoken of 
only in America. The term Scotch-Irish derives its name, 
perhaps, from the Scotch Protestants who were sent over 
to Ireland from Scotland in the latter half of the seven- 
teenth century, in order to convert the Romanists in the 
ancient realm of St. Patrick. But the followers of the 
legendary saint were incorrigible, and the Scotch Presby- 
terians left the island in high dudgeon, and consequently, 
practically no amalgamation of the two peoples took 
place. Many or most of these same Scotch Presbyterians, 
on quitting Ireland, came over to America, largely to 
Pennsylvania, thus giving Mr. Fiske his clew. Perhaps 
the Scotch and Irish cognomens mentioned above are 
identical with these same Scotch. Now, if the majority 
of the Kentucky Mountaineers were Scotch-Irish, the 
majority of the cognomens of these people ought to be 
either Scotch, or Irish, or both. Let us see. Out of four 
hundred surnames collected from Eastern Kentucky by 
the writer, it is difificult to find an aggregate of twenty 
per cent, of Scotch and of Irish cognomens. It is evident, 
then, that this Scotch-Irish theory cannot be taken 
seriously. 

THE SCOTCH-HIGHLANDER THEORY. 

2. Scotch-Highlander. This is the favorite theory of 
President Frost and Dr. Guerrant, and is widely preva- 
lent. The adherents of this theory base the authenticity 
of their claims largely upon anology, as follows: The 
Scotch Highlander inhabits the highlands of Scotland; 



The Kentucky Highlanders 11 

the Kentucky Mountaineer inhabits the highlands of 
Kentucky- Ergo, the Kentucky Mountaineers are of 
Scotch Highlander ancestry, because the Scotch High- 
lander must have highlands in which to "live, move, and 
have his being." Further, that, since the Scotch High- 
lander, in his hilly, craggy retreats, was something of a 
feudist, the Kentucky Mountaineer, who inhabits sur- 
roundings the topography of which is similar to the high- 
lands of Scotland, and who is himself something of a 
feudist, must be of Scotch Highlander ancestry. 

It is a mistaken impression that the Scotch can live 
nowhere except among hills or mountains. It is an histori- 
cal fact that the majority of the Scotch Highlanders who 
came to America are found today in the lowlands of Nova 
Scotia, eastern and southeastern Canada. Again, the per 
cent, of the Highland population in Scotland itself was 
never large, the majority of the population being found 
in the lowlands. 

It is further claimed that the characteristic tendency 
of the Kentucky Mountaineer is to "exterminate" 
his neighbor. The great plains of the West have 
given the United States this unfortunate reputation. 
According to Dr. MacKenzie, for every one man killed 
in the Kentucky mountains, one thousand lose their lives 
on the plains ! It is assumed, also, that quarrels, feuds 
and vendettas are especially peculiar to the mountaineers 
of Europe and America. Whereas, history shows that 
the most bitter feuds of Europe were waged in Iceland, 
along the valley of the Rhine in Germany, and on the 
islands of Corsica and Sicily. Reasoning from this theory, 
then, the Kentucky highlanders might be dubbed "Ice- 
landers," "Corsicans," "Sicilians," or even "Germans!" 



12 The Kentucky Highlanders 

What a pity M. Prosper Merimee never visited the Ken- 
tucky highlands for the setting of "Colomba ! " 

Let us account for some of the lawlessness and blood- 
thirstiness among the Kentucky Mountaineers. In the 
pioneer days these people were compelled to bear the 
brunt of fighting the Cherokee and other Indian tribes, 
while the people of the plains were molested with com- 
parative rarity. A mere handful of red men could guard 
a mountain pass against a large body of whites, and it 
was the strategic importance of the highlands that made 
them a favorite fighting ground between the pioneers and 
the tribesmen. Woe to the pale face that had not learned 
to use the rifle ! And this state of affairs reaches back 
not three generations in Kentucky history. It was the 
pioneers who settled in the hills, that saved Kentucky for 
the whites ; but this does not prove that the people were 
Scotch Highlanders. Bravery and patriotism are com- 
mon enough among all sections of the English-speaking 
world. If the Kentucky Mountaineers are of Scotch 
Highlander origin, they have been infamous enough to 
discard the surnames of their forefathers. 

OLD ENGLISH AS A THEORY. 

3. Old English or Anglo-Saxon. As was said above, 
this is the theory of Ellen Churchill Semple. It is also 
championed by President Thirkield, of Howard Univer- 
sity, who has given a quarter of a century to mission and 
educational work among the Southern AUeghanies. James 
Lane Allen is not the only gifted writer who is positive 
that English is the ancestry of the majority of Kentuck- 
ians in every section of the state. A long chain of cold 



The Kentucky Highlanders 13 

facts, and not a mere hypothesis, establishes the truth of 
this contention. The Kentucky Mountaineers, themselves 
—their customs, dialect, linguistic characteristics, folk- 
songs, play-and-dance-songs, child-rhymes, superstitions 
and riddles, nursery rhymes and the like, and above all, 
their cognomens, speak most loudly in the matter. First, 
then, the unanswerable argument in favor of this view, is 
that it is endorsed by the science and study of English 
philology. Every honest man bears the surname of his 
father. An analysis of the list of four hundred surnames 
referred to above elearly demonstrates that at least 
eighty per cent, of them are of pure Old English origin. 
Then, how did this English element get into the Ken- 
tucky mountains ? Most of them came from Virginia and 
North Carolina, and some maybe from Pennsylvania. 
Three-fourths of the old "citizens" of the mountains will 
converse with you for hours, and tell you of their people 
in "Ole Virginny" and in North Car'liny." In this con- 
nection, and since there is an insignificant element of 
French Huguenot parentage in the Kentucky highlands, 
it might be well to quote a paragraph from Ellen Churchill 
Semple's story in the Geographical Review. She says: 

"They (the Mountaineers) formed a part of the same 
tide of pioneers which crossed the mountains to people 
the states on the southwest, but they chanced to turn 
aside from the main stream, and ever since have stagnated 
in these mountain hollows. For example, over a hundred 
years ago eleven Combs brothers, related to General 
Combs of the Revolutionary army, came over the moun- 
tains from North Carolina. Nine of them settling along 
the North Fork of the Kentucky River in the mountains 
of Perry County, one went further down the stream into 



14 The Kentucky Highlanders 

the rough hill country of Breathitt County, and the 
eleventh continued on his way till he came into the 
smiling country of the Blue Grass, and here became the 
progenitor of a family which represents the blue blood of 
the state, with all the aristocratic instincts of the old 
South ; while their cousins in the mountains go barefoot." 
Even a careless perusal of the telephone register in 
almost any Kentucky town will reveal a majority of 
English surnames. In the early migrations across the 
mountains and into the plains, many a pioneer no doubt 
was compelled to remain in the mountains because one of 
his wagon or cart wheels ran off, one of his family became 
sick, or some other little hindrance interfered. And here, 
attracted by the abundance of game, fish, and the natural 
scenery, he was content to remain and make his home. 
Does this severing of ties and relationship make the blood 
of the inhabitant of the refined and cultured Blue Grass 
any bluer than that of his less favored, but virile and 
sturdy brother of the highlands? Let John Fox, Jr's 
novels decide. 

FOLK-LORE AND PHILOLOGY AS AN ARGUMENT. 

And now we come to the folk-lore of the Kentucky 
mountains. The folk-songs, play-and-dance-songs, child 
and nursery rhymes, "jigs," superstitions and riddles 
strongly corroborate the theory that most of this folk- 
lore came directly or indirectly from England. In this 
instance the proof is so overwhelmingly conclusive that 
only a few examples will suffice. If reference is made to 
Alice B. Gomme's monumental work on "Traditional 
Child Games of England and Scotland," practically all of 



The Kentucky Highlanders 15 

the games and play-songs of that work will be found to 
be common, also, in some form, if not exactly, to those 
of the Kentucky mountains. For example: 

England Kentucky Mountains 

Blind Man's Buff Blind Pole (Fold) 

Chickamy Chickie my Crany Crow 

Drop Handkerchief Drop Handkerchief 

Frog in the Middle Frog in the Meadow 

Green Gravel Green Gravel 

Green Grow the Leaves Green Grow the Leaves 

Jolly Fisherman Jolly Fishermen 

London Bridge London Bridge 

Hewley Puley (Same game, different title 

May I Go Out to Play (Same game, different title) 

Round and Round the Village Round the Levee 
Three Dukes Three Dukes 

Hooper's Hide Hoop-Hide 

The larger number of folk-songs show local touches 
dealing with some part of England. That is, of course 
those songs that are traditional, and can be identified 
with Child's collection. A comparison of these folk- 
songs with those in the collections of Child, Gummere, 
Sidgwick, Stevenson, QuiUer-Couch and others, reveals a 
marked similarity. One of them, "The Rich Margent 
(Merchant)," begins: 

There was a rich margent 
From London did dwell. 

In "Jack Wilson" one line runs: "In Katherine Street I 
did resort;" and another, "At length to Newgate I were 
brought " Newgate, as is well known, was a famous old 
prison of London. In "Jackie Frazier," the "silk mar- 



16 The Kentucky Highlanders 

gent" lives in London. "Fair Notamon (Nottingham) 
Town" is another instance. "King George" and" King 
Henry" are common to many of the riddles and play- 
songs. 

OLD AND MIDDLE ENGLISH. 

The English spoken in the Kentucky mountains is 
abundant proof that the people are of Old English ex- 
traction. Many examples of pure Old English, Middle 
English, and Elizabethan English are common to this 
section. Words and terms used by Shakspere and in the 
King James version of the Bible appear in abundance. 
These instances establish the possible fact that the purest 
English spoken on earth is that of the Kentucky moun- 
tains — however unpolished and crude it may be, gram- 
matically. 

Old English and words closely related to it: holp, 
holpen, weuns, youuns \ frequent use of the sufifix like: 
kindly sick-like, crazy -like, etc.; ax {O. E.) axian, for 
ask ; heerd, beck {back), pack, {carry), chist, {chest); frequent 
use of deal{0. E.) daet) \ yearii {ear?i), gyarden, cyards 
(examples of "breaking," or "palatal influence" in Old 
English) ; pard, clomb, hwa?ig, botmdefi, lief, and the 
Saxon hit for it. 

Early and Middle English : start- or stark-naked 
{steort 7iakii), for to invite {forte -i?wite) , methought {me- 
thogte), f other, without {except), afore, sistre?i, {sustren). 

Shaksperean English: against (conjunction), pref - 
near t, might 7iear' t, af eared, writ, wait on the table (to 
return thanks), go7n, or gorm (to muss), back a horse 
(mount a horse), bttss (kiss. King John, HI Scene, 10, 
1. 35), wall-eyed (King John, IV Scene 3, 1. 49) ; beholde?i 



The Kentucky Highlanders 17 

/.(King John, I Scene 1, 1. 239); brand-fired new (King 

Lear, V Scene 3, 1, 132). ■ u » 

Only a few of the examples have been given above, 
all of which demonstrate conclusively that the language 
of the Kentucky Mountaineer is that transported to 
America in the seventeenth century, the era o American 
colonization. There is even a possible echo of Italian, in 
the dialect word brigaty or brigady, which may be con- 
nected with the Italian briga, brigata, bHgare, or bngarst. 
However, the word may be a corruption of bigoted 

In this contention for the Old English theory of the 
origin of the Kentucky Mountaineers, the writer has not 
aimed to completely discard the evidences of Scotch and 
Irish ancestry. Beyond the minority of Scotch and Irish 
cognomens the evidences are so few as hardly to deserve 
mention, and for that reason they have been omitted. 

THE MOUNTAINEER'S PERSONALITY AND HOSPITALITY. 

The Kentucky Mountaineer, as a member of the 
social fabric, is a striking figure. In personal appearance 
he is tall, angular, and inclined to droop his shoulders^ 
Charles Dickens, when he visited Louisville, took note ot 
this peculiarity. Government statistics show that he is the 
tallest soldier on an average in the world. A fine-haired 
furriner" once attributed this tall stature to looking upward 
so often to see the sun,and to climbing the mountains A 
saner, but yet incorrect view, attributes it to the drinking 
of too many stimulants, and eating badly-cooked food. 
This might account, to some extent, for the lack of a 
well-rounded, well-proportioned body. The Mountain- 
eer's eyes are set rather far back, with a frank, serious 



18 The Kentucky Highlanders 

expression, and are often inscrutable. One doesn't al- 
ways understand them at first, but he may be sure that 
behind them the Mountaineer is doing some thinking. 

Climatic conditions play a large part in the tempera- 
ment and disposition of the Mountaineer. It is a well 
known fact that eastern and south-eastern Kentucky are 
possessed of a heavy, humid atmosphere, and that heavy 
fogs are almost a daily occurrence. This is conducive 
not only to nose, throat and catarrhal troubles, but is 
extremely detrimental to consumptives. Hence a drowsy 
or lethargic condition is often prevalent, which, added to 
his profound reticence and lack of demonstration, often 
makes the Mountaineer misunderstood and underrated 
by the outside world. This reticence and undemonstra- 
tive nature on the part of the Mountaineer frequently 
causes his benefactor to consider it as ingratitude. But 
he is one of the most grateful beings in the world, and 
deep down in his heart he is thanking you with all his 
might. 

The Mountaineer's hospitality is as pure and unde- 
filed as his brooks and waterfalls. When he says to you, 
"'Light and set, stranger; come in and stay all night if 
ye can put up with our fare," he means every word of it. 
And don't be surprised, if at the breakfast table he asks 
you to "wait on the table;" for he is very reverent if he 
thinks you have a mind to return thanks. He will send 
one of his family to a neighbor's to sleep, or "make down 
a bed" in order to give you room. The Mountaineer's 
home often consists of a single log house with a single 
big room, which serves the combined purposes of waiting- 
room, parlor, bed-room, dining-room and kitchen. If the 
house has an addition, or if it has more than one room, it 



The Kentucky Highlanders 



19 



is called "houses" and not "house." The Mountaineer 
in spite of his reticence, is a very sensitive being, and 
failure to converse with him after coming into his house 
is taken for ingratitude or something else. He is frank 
and outspoken, to extremes, and will give vent to his 
feelings or opinions regardless of consequences. Conceit, 
vanity and hypocrisy are alien to his nature, and he often 
credits the outsider with these attributes because he mis- 
understands him. 

THE WOMEN OF THE MOUNTAINS. 

The women of the mountains form an interesting 
study It has been said they are sullen, grave, and of a 
retiring disposition. This is largely true, and is accounted 
for by the fact that their position in the social caste ot 
the mountains is a hard one, and a deplorable one, for the 
most part. First, race suicide is no question for he 
sociologist to struggle with in the mountains of Kentucky^ 
Whether or no it is better to rear up a small family and 
do it well, or rear up a large family badly, is no concern 
for the Mountaineer. Most families in the mountains are 
large-some of them very large, ranging from a dozen to 
eighteen or twenty under one roof. It is not difficult 
then to conceive of the multitudinous cares that must 
befall the lot of these women, which condition prevents 
much mingling and social intercourse with the wodc^ 
One middle-aged man, who lives on Caney Fork •" 1^"°" 
County, said he had twenty-one children, and that 1 
ain't done yit." Withal, the mountain mother is possessed 
of the genuine maternal instinct, is gentle with and pas- 



20 The Kentucky Highlanders 

sionately fond of her offspring, and hospitable to 
strangers. 

Ellen Churchill Semple says that the idealism of 
youth usually keeps the mountain girl pure, but that when 
she marries and takes up the heavy burdens of life, she is 
plunged into a gross materialism. Further, that "there 
seems to be no higher standard of morality for the women 
than for the men, and for both it is low." I cannot per- 
sonally accept this view. The dual standard of morals 
persists in the Kentucky mountains, as it does in almost 
every other community among civilized peoples. When 
a mountain girl ceases to be virtuous, she loses the respect 
of the people in her community. When a young man is 
guilty of the same charge, he is judged by a different 
code of morals, as he would be in any other community 
in America. The standard of morals among mountain 
wives is not low. In most instances the wife is true to 
her husband, more so, perhaps, than among any other 
people on earth. Disreputable houses are unknown in 
the mountains, and this state of affairs exercises a tre- 
mendous influence. Because of it, venereal or aphrodisiac 
desires are not so common, nor are sexual diseases so 
numerous as in the cities. This also accounts for the 
strong, physical appearance of the Mountaineer. 

In most instances the mountain woman would will- 
ingly shed her own blood in her husband's behalf. During 
the French-Eversole feud in Perry County, the husband 
of a mountain woman was lying on a bed of sickness. A 
number of the feudists attacked the house with malicious 
intent to take his life. Hurrying her young ones into 
the basement of the house, she hastily seized a revolver 
and drove the intruders away at the point of it. 



The Kentucky Highlanders 21 

Mountain parents still have some antiquated ideas 
about the education of their daughters. When a girl in 
the public schools reaches the point of proficiency in the 
"three r's," this is considered sufficient for practical pur- 
poses—for the remainder of her life. Time spent on 
anything beyond the three r's, so thinks the Mountaineer, 
is lost. Because of this, much difficulty is experienced 
in attempting to send the girls to schools located at the 
county seats, or to the colleges. 

NO SOCIAL CASTES. 

There are practically no social castes in the Kentucky 
mountains. "I'm as good as you are," or "I'm as good 
as he is," are stock expressions. A virile, sturdy man- 
hood, in the midst of rugged environments, where the 
struggle for existence has been so difficult — , all these 
things have fostered within the Mountaineer's breast an 
intense spirit of freedom and independence, common to 
the dwellers of all highland regions. This accounts for 
the stand taken by the Mountaineers of the Southern 
Alleghanies during the Civil War. Their ancestors had 
stood shoulder to shoulder during the Civil War in Eng- 
land, under Prince Rupert and the Royalist leaders; at 
King's Mountain they taught Col. Ferguson how to 
change nis opinion when he said that there were not 
enough Rebels in hell to run him from King's Mountain. 
So, when the Civil War came, they shouldered arms and 
fought for the Union, and for one flag. At the Battle of 
New Orleans, in the War of 1812, bands of these rugged 
frontiersmen, wearing coon-skin caps, poured into Gen- 
eral Jackson's ranks, without guns. "Old Hickory" said 



22 The Kentucky Highlanders 

to them, "Boys, where are your guns ?" "Got none," 
came the response. "Then what are you going to do ?" 
There was a pause, and finally one of them answered : 
"I'll tell you what we'll do, Gin'ral, we'll foller them 
there Tennesseans into battle, and ever' time one falls 
we'll jist inherit his gun." 

BORN LAWYERS AND POLITICIANS. 

It has been said that the Mountaineer takes to law 
and politics "like a duck to water." He is a natural 
born orator. How are these things to be accounted for? 
Educational facilities have long been wanting, to a sad 
degree, in the mountains. The Bible, works on history, 
and biography are the most prominent, where there are 
books at all. Now, the Mountaineer is patriotic and 
loyal, and his idea of greatness in this Republic is to 
imitate the great patriots and statesmen of America. 
Most of them were politicians and lawyers ; hence, to 
become famous, he, too, must study law and politics. 
The story is told of a mountain lawyer who once followed 
a number of other lawyers into the consulting room — in 
his shirt sleeves and bare feet. Not knowing who he 
was, one of the more cultured barristers said to him, 
"What are j^^2/ doing in here?" "I'nh here to defend 
this man," was the answer. Judge Patton, whose district 
lay in the Big Sandy Valley, was one of the most famous, 
as well as one of the most eccentric lawyers and judges 
Eastern Kentucky has ever produced. He once instructed 
his grand jury something like this: "Gentlemen, you 
have here a most beautiful piece of public property, upon 
which rests this hall of Justice. Its verdant, rolling grass, 



The Kentucky Highlanders 23 

and majestic towering tree tops attest at once God's 
loving kindness and infinite great mercy. A lovely fence 
encircles this property and hall, where justice is wont to 
be meted out. But, gentlemen, our people are hitching 
their horses to this fence. There is a class of people in 
this world, gentlemen, who would ride right up to the 
Garden of Eden, push aside its Heavenly-commissioned 
guardian, fling the gate wide open, loiter down its Tempe- 
like vales, hitch their horses to the Tree of Life, and 
banter Moses for a horse-swap. Fine these men, gentle- 
men, fine them ! " At another time he instructed them : 
"Gentlemen ! whenever you see a great big over-grown 
buck sitting at the mouth of some holler, or at the forks 
of some road — with a big slouch hat on, a blue collar, a 
celluloid, artificial rose on his coat lapel, and a banjo 
strung across his breast, and a-pickin' of Sourwood Moun- 
tain, fine that man, gentlemen, fine him ! For if he 
hasn't already done something, he's a-goin' to!" 

The mountain politician, however, is often a trickster, 
and knows all the by-paths of political chicanery and 
crookedness. He can buy votes on election day without 
the slightest moral reservation or remorse of conscience. 
The legal profession in the Kentucky Mountains is not by 
any means a bed of roses, especially when it comes to 
the question of civil law. Kentucky has been cursed 
with worse land titles than has any other State in the 
Union. More than a century ago Virginia granted great 
boundaries of land to various parties, and these grants 
lap and over-lap each other. When Kentucky became a 
state, grants of thousands and hundreds of thousands of 
acres were made by the state, which made the question 
of titles doubtful, and caused much of the land to over- 



24 The Kentucky Highlanders 

lap as many as three and four times. When some of the 
large land companies undertook, four or five years ago, 
to establish the validity of the old Virginia grants, and to 
claim enormous tracts of land in a half dozen of the 
mountain counties, trouble was narrowly averted, because 
the Mountaineers threatened to take up arms in support 
of their claims. But the Kentucky Land Grants prevailed, 
the land companies were beaten in the courts, and the 
matter was settled. Many civil suits appear in the courts, 
because of the difficulty in surveying the rugged lands, 
abstracting titles, preparing separate deeds, executing 
and delivering them. The Mountaineer knows exactly 
where every foot of his land lies, the exact trees and spots 
marking its boundaries. 

DECAY OF THE FEUD SPIRIT. 

The feud spirit or clan instinct is dying out in the 
Kentucky mountains. Better schools and churches, and 
more of them, are responsible for this state of affairs. 
The chief reason for the feud is this : The mountaineer 
is not only a good lover — a character who never forgets 
his benefactor — but he is a fierce hater, as well. He 
never forgets an injury or injustice perpetrated against 
him, and it rankles in his breast as long as his heart 
beats. Consequently revenge is the sweetest morsel he 
can roll under his tongue. He must have this revenge, 
no matter how long it takes him to get it. As a result, 
his old Teutonic instinct arises in him and he takes the 
law into his own hands to accomplish his purpose. In 
such instances neither the jus ge?itmm nor the lex Romana 



The Kentucky Highlanders 25 

bothers him. The State ? Well, r etat, c est lid. Then 
the clan instinct arises and the feud begins. 

Along with the feud the moonshine still is passing. 
Much moonshine is yet made, however, and revenue men 
still have work ahead of them. In his code of ethics, 
legal or otherwise, the Mountaineer finds it difficult to 
understand why a remote, centralised form of government 
has any right to interfere with or molest a "private" little 
enterprise far back in the cove at the head of some dark 
hollow. If he wants to distill his corn into moonshine 
whiskey, he thinks that is his business. A great many of 
the Mountaineers drink whiskey, but the per cent, of those 
who can "take a dram" and stop at that, is large. It is 
thought no harm to drink a little — sometimes more. The 
story is told of a man in Knott County who "turned off" 
a whole quart of moonshine before taking the cup from 
his head. Won't you have more ?" he was asked. 
"Nope, it might fly to my head." In many families the 
children drink whiskey sweetened with sugar. Mary 
Noailles Murfree ("Charles Egbert Craddock") in one of 
her stories of East Tennessee, has this to say about the 
Mountaineer's conception of water and whiskey: "I 
'member when I war a gal," says old Mis' Cayce, "whiskey 
war so cheap that up to the store at the settlew2?z/ they'd 
hev a bucket set full o' whiskey an' a gourd, free fur all 
comers, an' another bucket alongside with water ter season 
it. An' the way that thar water lasted war surprisin'; 
that it war." One Mountaineer once saw another Moun- 
taineer going toward a water-mill, with a sack of corn on 
his back, and remarked: "Look at that feller goin' 
yander totin' a turn o' meal ; bet right now he ain't got 
a pint o' liquor in his house." This moonshine whiskey 



26 The Kentucky Highlanders 

comes in handy at "workings" — corn-hoeings, log-roll- 
ings, clearings, and the like. At one of these workings 
a whole field full of neighbors work till dinner time, then 
come in, and in a circle, drink moonshine from a jug. 
The night of the same day comes a big party, where the 
square dance is the chief feature. 

OLD ENGLISH CUSTOMS AND SUPERSTITIONS. 

Many curious Old English customs and superstitions 
still persist in the Kentucky mountains. Some of the 
prevailing superstitious beliefs are as follows : Take a 
small stone from the creek bed and place it in the bottom 
of the grate or fire-place, and the hawks will cease catch- 
ing the chickens. It is bad luck to start somewhere and 
turn back. Friday is an unlucky day. If a spirit or 
ghost pursues you, stop in the middle of some stream 
and make the sign of the Cross with your fingers. If you 
kill a toad your cows will give bloody milk. There are 
many charms for making one love you. Take the paddle 
of a goose's foot, boil it and give the water to your girl. 
When you hear a hen crow, kill her at once, for it is bad 
luck to allow her to live ; when roosters crow at night it 
is a sign that somebody has just died. Don't go to bed 
singing, for if you do you will die during the night. 
There is no need of being bothered with warts, because 
any old woman possessed of supernatural powers can re- 
move them for so many pins. Don't carry any farming 
implement through the house, for it is bad luck. If you 
step over a grave in a graveyard or cemetery you will be 
the next person to be buried there. When a family 
moves to a different house or locality it is bad luck to 



The Kentucky Highlanders 27 

take a cat with them. If a child's finger nails are trim- 
med or pared it will be guilty of stealing before it is a 
year old. If you look upward and count a hundred stars 
before lowering your head you will drop dead before 
taking another step. If a bird flies into a house it is a 
sign that someone in that family will die soon. 

The casual observer, as well as the student of folk- 
lore, would suppose the idea of witchcraft died out with 
the persecution of witches at Salem, Massachusetts, at the 
close of the seventeenth century. But it did not die. 
Less than fifty years ago the belief in witchcraft had 
quite a following in the Kentucky mountains. Nor has 
it died out yet. There are numbers and numbers of 
women and men in the mountains who are credited with 
the powers of witchcraft, and who believe themselves to 
be gifted with those strange powers. Usually they are 
persons who are past the medium station in years. The 
process by which one may become a witch or a wizard is 
weird and gruesome, and offers a striking comparison to 
the old and familiar Faustus Legend. The aspirant goes, 
early in the morning, before sunrise, to the top of an 
adjacent mountain. Here, he or she hurls an anathema 
at Jehovah, "owns" the Devil as a master, then holds up 
a white handkerchief in front of the rising sun, shoots 
through it with a silver bullet, and blood drips down from 
it. The operation is then complete, and Dr. Faustus is 
beaten at his own game. 

These witches, empowered with Satanic attributes, 
cause a great deal of fear and trembling in a community. 
Those who have been bewitched, or who have had some 
of their domesticated animals bewitched, are very anx- 
ious to court the favor of the witches. It is a common 



28 The Kentucky Highlanders 

occurrence for these witches and wizards to metamor- 
phose themselves into the form of a black cat when they 
go about their mischief-making. Here are some of the 
things witches do : They transform certain individuals 
into horses and ride them all night, restoring the be- 
witched to their natural shapes before daylight, however. 
Only the form of one bewitched is changed ; his rational 
attributes remain intact throughout his transformation, 
and he often complains of long, difficult journeys, jump- 
ing of ditches, fences, etc. Cows are often bewitched, 
and their owners complain that they are not "giving 
down" milk, whereas, the cows belonging to witches are 
continually yielding a plentiful supply. Even a churn 
and its contents can be bewitched, and in order to break 
the spell, a coin of fifty cents is placed in the bottom of 
the churn before beginning to churn. But a witch doesn't 
even have to own a cow in order to have plenty of butter 
at her own command. She occupies the remarkable and 
convenient distinction of being able to produce the 
creamy substance by merely squeezing the handle of an 
ordinary table fork. 

Painful accidents sometimes befall witches. Many 
years ago a man's wife, who was a witch, went one night 
to attend a meeting of the witches. In the guise of a 
black cat she came home to where her husband was sit- 
ting by the fireside, and threw her paws upon his knees. 
Not especially in love with the salutation of this strange 
visitor, he chopped one of her paws off, and immediately 
the hand of a woman lay upon his knee. The next morn- 
ing his wife complained of sickness, and was not disposed 
to get out of bed. The husband was suspicious and 



The Kentucky Highlanders 29 

asked her to reach out her right arm. She did so, and 
the hand was missing. 

Now, since so many people and animals are bewitched, 
there must be many charms to ward off witchcraft, also 
doctors to doctor against witches. The "witch" or "hair- 
ball" is a dangerous weapon in the hands of witches. It 
is made by rolling a small bunch of hair from a horse or 
cow into a hard, round ball. A witch can kill a person 
with one of these balls. In Knott County, once upon a 
time, a wizard became jealous of another man. This man 
was plowing in his field one day, and suddenly dropped 
dead, between his plow handles. The case was investi- 
gated, and it was found that the wizard had done the 
deed in this wise : He went into the woods, drew a pic- 
ture of his enemy upon a tree, took aim with a gun and 
sent the witch-ball through the picture. It developed 
later that when the dead man fell between the plow 
handles a witch-ball dropped out of his mouth. This is 
clearly an instance of sympathetic magic. If a person or 
brute is being bewitched, and a witch doctor's work be- 
gins to tell, the witch at once begins to suffer great 
physical agony, and comes bearing a gift to the bewitched 
person, or to the owner of the bewitched animal. If the 
gift is accepted, the work of the doctor, or of the charm, 
at once loses its efficacy. When a witch is at her mischief- 
making, she is invisible to everybody save to the person 
bewitched. She is invulnerable — even her heels — except 
when shot with a silver bullet by the hand of the 
bewitched. 



30 The Kentucky Highlanders 

coquetry and flirting unknown. 

The code of social etiquette in the Kentucky moun- 
tains is not hampered by much cold and rigid formality. 
Coquetry and flirting are unknown. When the youth 
has begun "to make some speed" with one of the dam- 
sels, she is supposed to give her time and attention to 
him, and to him alone ; and vice versa. The Mountaineer 
is one of the most jealous-hearted characters on earth. 
Calls are made at will, without any previous engagement 
or understanding. But the usual time for such functions 
is Saturday or Sunday, or both. It is no breech of eti- 
quette, whatever, for the young man to pass the night at 
the house of his sweetheart's parents, and he often does 
this, staying over both Saturday and Sunday nights. 
While the youth is enjoying his call, it is a matter of 
small import if the hands of the clock incidentally point 
to 10:00 p. m. He may prolong his call indefinitely 
through the night. When a mountain youth is seen call- 
ing on a girl, nine times out of ten he means business, for 
not much time is wasted on matters like this in the Ken- 
tucky mountains. And the same per cent, of weddings 
are "slipped." When the wedding comes off, usually 
during the morning, the big dinner takes place the same 
day, at the home of the bride. The night of the same 
day is given over to the gay festivities of the square 
dance, or the "shindig," and old games. Here again 
time is no item, and if the father of the bride were pro- 
ficient in Horace, doubtless he would cry out to the rev- 
elers at the symposium : ''Sume cyathos ceiihim, et vigiles 
lucernas perfer in lucent f The next day at noon comes 
the "infair," or dinner at the home of the groom. 



The Kentucky Highlanders 31 

The traveler through the Kentucky mountains is 
struck at once with the unique character and position of 
the "graveyards" or cemeteries. Almost without excep- 
tion they are situated in the most beautiful spots, on the 
summit of the extremity of some low ridge of mountain 
land. A mound is heaped up over every grave, and most 
of these graves are covered or protected by a tiny, lat- 
ticed house, painted blue and white. The funerals 
preached at these graveyards are momentous occasions. 
They are seldom preached at the time of the interment, 
but years and years afterward, sometimes as many as 
fifty or seventy-five. More than one funeral is often 
preached on the same occasion, and five or six Primitive 
Baptists do the preaching. 

folk-lore and balladry. 

According to Dr. H. G. Shearin, Professor of Anglo- 
Saxon and of English Philology in Transylvania Univer- 
sity, Kentucky is the most fertile State in the Union for 
folk-lore. As a special instance he cites the mountains 
of Kentucky. It is a notable fact that when Professor 
Child's great work on British folk-songs was given to the 
world (1898), the Harvard professor was leaving untouch- 
ed not only scores of traditional ballads down in the 
Kentucky mountains, but hundreds. He thus blazed a 
trail in the world of balladry from which subsequent bal- 
ladists have been slow to depart; because it became cus- 
tomary to look to Professor Child as the only authority 
on folk songs. For this reason the great mass of tradi- 
tional British ballads in America, as well as those indi- 



32 The Kentucky Highlanders 

genous to American soil, have been somewhat belated in 
coming into their own. 

From the prevalence of these traditional ballads in 
the mountains, also the hundreds that have sprung up in 
that section, and are still being composed, it is evident 
proof that ballad composition is not a lost art, as some 
balladists contend. Why does the art still persist in the 
Kentucky mountains ? For the same reason that it did 
in England and Scotland in the rural and mountainous 
districts of those countries three or four centuries ago. 
For instance, some unusual incident takes place, such as 
murder, public execution or tragic love affair. Now, in a 
rural or isolated district, such an incident creates a strong 
impression because the busy existence of the outside 
world is not there. Soon there is not lacking some im- 
provisatrice, as it, were, to tell the story in ballad form. 
For the women often compose the ballads, and most 
often sing them. One "mountain Sappho," who lives in 
Letcher County, composed a lengthy ballad on young 
Floyd Frazier, who was executed in 1909, for the murder 
of a woman in 1907. She is perfectly frank and easy 
about the matter, and informs us : 

This song came to me 
By day and by night, 
Therefore it is right to sing it 
In this vain world of delight. 

A Study of ballads indigenous to Eastern Kentucky 
throws much light upon the mooted question of ballad 
origin and authorship. The method of composition in 
the Kentucky mountains is always individual or private 
ownership, or authorship — "personal property" — as op- 
posed to the theory of communal or folk composition. It 



The Kentucky Highlanders 33 

is strange that no songs appear which bear the distinctive 
stamp of the clan instinct. Dr. Shearin accounts for this 
when he says that the Mountaineer is strangely silent on 
these matters, and that they are to be thought of, but not 
writte?i dow?i in verse. However, many ballads recount 
the story of the death of clansmen. There are songs 
that tell the story of the death of clansmen of the 
McCoy-Hatfield Feud, the Rowan County War, the 
Howard-Baker and the French-Eversole Feuds, and the 
Hargis troubles. 

The "jigs" or improvisations are very numerous, and 
may be arranged, according to Dr. Shearin. into two 
classes : Those sung to pass off the time, and those of a 
philosophic nature. Many of them are similar in struc- 
ture to the locutions heard on the modern vaudeville 
stage. For instance, without a thought as to the logical 
connection between fishing and courting, a sturdy young 
Mountaineer will sit whittling on a dry-goods box in 
some country store, or with a banjo across his knee, and 
suddenly break forth : 

•'Gi' me the hook and gi' me the line, 
Gi' me the gal ye call Car' line." 

Or, he sometimes philosophises, and settles the eternal 
question of the ages — the stunintim boiium — by couching 
it in this wise : 

Beefsteak when I'm hungry, 

Corn liker when I'm dry — 

Pretty little girl when I'm lonesome, 

Sweet heaven when I die — 

Sweet heaven when 1 die. 

A study of these ballads and jigs is incomplete with- 
out mention of the musical instruments used to accompany 



34 The Kentucky Highlanders 

them. The banjo is the popular instrument for rendering 
the jigs; however, the violin is used also. The "dulci- 
more" (dulcimer) is the traditional piece that drones, in 
a sad strain, the nasal music of the ballad. To a certain 
extent all three of these instruments are used for both 
ballads and jigs. The dulcimore is a unique survival of 
antique musical instruments, and needs explanation. It 
is oblong, about thirty-four inches in length, with a width 
at its greatest of about six inches, becoming smaller at 
each end. Three strings reach from tip to tip, the first 
and second ones tuned to the same pitch, and the third 
one forms the bass string. Two octaves and a quarter 
are marked out upon the three-quarters of an inch piece 
of wood that supports, and is just under the strings on 
the top of the instrument. The Mountaineer "follers 
pickin' " it by means of a quill, with which he strikes 
the three strings at the same time with his right hand, 
over the gap at the larger end, at the same time using in 
his left hand a small reed with which he produces the air, 
or his "single string variations." The music of the dul- 
cimore resembles that of the Scottish bag pipe, in that it 
is weird and strange. Under its spell one finds himself 
mysteriously holding communion with the gossamer-like 
ma?ies of the long-departed souls of the palace of Lady 
Rowena Trevanion, of Tremaine. The dulcimore is rap- 
idly becoming a thing of the past, because the Moun- 
taineers are becoming ashamed of the musical instrument 
that stands, with many other things, on the dividing line 
between two civilizations. Only a few of them are ex- 
tant. Within a few more years and this strange old relic 
of by-gone days will pass, to keep company with 



I 



The Kentucky Highlanders 35 

The harp that once thro Tara's Halls 

The soul of music shed, 
Hangs now as mute on Tara's Walls, 

As if that soul were fled. 

This strange music of the dulcimore appeals to the 
heart of the Mountaineer, as does the music of the 
"Sourvvood Mountain" fiddler. It is foreign to our intro- 
spective age. Like the blind old minstrel of *'Scio's 
rocky isle," the troubadour, the minnesinger, and the 
scop, the "Sourvvood Mountain" fiddler takes pride in 
saying 

"I'll tune up my fiddle, I'll rosin my bow, 
I'll make myself welcome wherever I go." 

But his prerogative is shifting. Just as there is a vast 
gap between the poetry of art and the poetry of the folk, 
so is there a vast difference between the music of the 
Sourvvood Mountain fiddler and the music of art. This 
antique musician knows little about Wagner and the mu- 
sical drama and the Italian melodists, and cares less. His 
music causes a feeling of enimi to steal over one, but he 
is giving his hearers something they can understand. 
His strains are the outbursts from the depths of a being 
that is sincere, and he fiddles and sings because he feels. 
In the words of Svenstrupp, the great Danish authority 
on folk-songs, the words of these canticles of love and 
woe "talk like a mother crooning to her babe, and have 
scarcely a kenning." It is related that when the maid- 
servant used to sing "Barbara Allen's Cruelty" to little 
Oliver Goldsmith, he would shed tears ; that the recital of 
"Chevy Chace" moved Sir Philip Sidney as nothing else 
could move him. But the transition to a new and en- 



36 The Kentucky Highlanders 

lightened age is inevitable. The "damsel with the dul- 
cimer," after a few more years, will cease to look up at 

Ballads pasted on the wall 

Of Chevy Chace and English Moll. 

THE mountaineer's RELIGION. 

In connection with the superstitious beliefs in the 
Kentucky mountains, the Mountaineer's religion presents, 
in many instances, a strange anomaly. Much of it bor- 
ders upon the superstitious. Says Ellen Churchill Sem- 
ple : "Such a religion, however, is likely to be elemental 
in character — intense as to feeling, tenacious of dogma, 
but exercising little or no influence on the morals of 
every-day life. * * * * * * gy nature he (the 
Mountaineer) is reverential. Caves are 'God's houses,' 
sun-time is 'God's time,' indicated by the noon-mark 
traced with charcoal on the cabin door or floor." 

The same conditions, religiously, that prevail in most 
of the mountains at-large, do not prevail in the towns 
and county seats. This is true with the greater part of 
this paper — the conditions prevailing in the county seats 
and towns are not found in the outlying districts. The 
religious faith is that of the Regular or Primitive Baptists. 
According to the Special Reports of the Bureau of the 
Census, for 1906, on Religious Bodies, there are more 
than five thousand communicants of this faith in Ken- 
tucky. Such names as "Primitive," "Regular," "Old 
Time," "Old School," "Anti Mission," "Hard Shell," 
"Soft Shell," "Free Willers," and the like, have been 
applied to them. But they must be distinguished from 
the "Free Will" Baptist Church that had its origin in 



The Kentucky Highlanders 37 

Wales, in 1701. There is no doubt but that this Primi- 
tive, or Regular Baptist Church had its origin in North 
Carolina shortly after the middle of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, and began to organize itself into "associations" in 
most of the Southern States in the first quarter of the 
nineteenth century. The doctrine and polity of the 
Primitive Baptists are unique. Their ostensible purpose 
for springing up — their raison d'etre — was to combat 
everything that seemed modern and progressive in the 
other denominations : to fight Sunday Schools, mission- 
ary movements, all sorts of church societies, and centrali- 
zation in church circles. Many of them believe in infant 
damnation, and practically all of them believe in predes- 
tination. They hold tenaciously that Sunday schools 
and even missionary activities are not in accordance with 
Apostolic doctrine and church polity. 

Because of difficult methods of travel in the moun- 
tains, scarcity of buildings for worship, and non-centrali- 
zation views, the Regular Baptists have organized them- 
selves into associations. All of these associations, in a 
broad sense, hold to the same tenets, in that they are 
strongly Calvinistic and predestinarian. Yet the indi- 
vidual members have scores of opinions of their own, and 
are sadly disorganized. Above all they believe that 
salaried ministers are an abomination ; that the minister 
of the Gospel must be "called," and go forth to preach 
without any preparation whatever; he is not even re- 
quired to be able to read and write. Somehow or other, 
the editor of the Regular Baptist Sword and Shield, pub- 
lished at Hindman, Kentucky, discovered that thirty 
small churches in Boston were without pastors during 
April, 1911, and, in an article that occupies almost the 



38 The Kentucky Highlanders 

entire magazine, attributes Boston's "unpardonable sin" 
to the resultant evils of salaried ministers. The Regular 
Baptists are rigid immersionists, and administer the 
sacrament and wash the saints' feet about three or four 
times each year. 

The prerequisites for membership in the Regular 
Baptist church are peculiar. If any one has "dreamed 
dreams or seen visions" — what the brethren term an 
"experience," he is eligible to church membership. This 
"experience," which is related at a meeting, consists in 
seeing a vision, "clear and distinct," in the cornfield or 
at any other avocation or having a dream, both of which 
instances often come in the guise of a warning. 

The Regular Baptist "meetins' " come once a month, 
usually, and the preaching lasts sometimes as long as two 
days — Saturday and Sunday. From two to six or eight 
preachers participate, and the one that preaches the 
longest and the loudest, and who succeeds in making the 
most of the "sistren" shout, is the "big gun." The 
nature of the preaching is mostly hortatory, and in- 
tensely dogmatic, the homiletics is bad and the exegesis 
weak. The Primitive Baptist preacher "strikes an atti- 
tude" and assumes some striking positions while preach- 
ing. The right hand or the left hand is placed some 
times on either cheek, the back of the head, on the fore- 
head, or the hand sometimes grasps the nose, or a finger 
is thrust into an ear. When the preacher gets warmed 
up, he raises his voice to a high pitch, and almost sings 
his words. Then he will drop back to an ordinary tone. 
Many of the Regular Baptist preachers drink whiskey, 
and some of them expostulate while in an almost drunken 
condition. 



The Kentucky Highlanders 39 

The Mountaineer assiduously keeps his religion 
divorced from his moral principles, and this may lend 
evidence, as Ellen Churchill Semple thinks, to the devel- 
opment theory of ethics. No wonder he does; he 
believes that the saints will all be preserved, and will 
persevere in grace unto heavenly glory, and that none of 
them will finally be consigned to perdition. 

The number of communicants of the Primitive Bap- 
tist faith is decreasing, according to the Census Reports. 
This decrease is easily explained. Any religious body 
that is not in accord with the spirit of modern progress 
and enlightenment, and cannot adapt itself to the exi- 
gencies of its constituency, cannot but prove itself a 
worthless element in human society. The Primitive Bap- 
tist church is non-progressive for the same reason Max 
Muller gave for the failure of Judaism as a factor m 
modern society— that it is inert because of its anti-evan- 
gelical and anti-missionary tendencies. 

THE EDUCATIONAL OUTLOOK. 

The whole educational situation, not only of the 
Kentucky mountains, but of the Southern Alleghanies, 
presents a study worthy of the attention of educators. 
If the Mountaineer cherishes no ambition for his daugh- 
ters in the educational world, his desire for educating his 
sons amounts to a passion. It is the opinion of President 
Thirkield that the question for the South to work out is 
not that of the negroes so much as that of the whites of 
the Southern Alleghanies. These whites— the purest 
Anglo-Saxon blood on earth— for the want of adequate 
school houses and many other educational facilities, have 



40 The Kentucky Highlanders 

remained shut in, and for a century have struggled 
against the stream in order to maintain their existence. 
So much money has been spent in Breathitt County 
for the prosecution of crime, that the public school 
buildings all over that county are travesties on the edu- 
cational system in Kentucky. To add to this backward 
and untoward condition, the public highways are as miser- 
able. The school houses are few and wide apart, and the 
school term is only six months. Many of the children 
are able to attend for only three or four months, and one 
teacher cannot handle all of the pupils given over to his 
care because there are so many in each district. Scores 
of teachers are engaged in the business only from a 
mercenary standpoint, and do not throw themselves into 
the work body and soul. Rev. H. P. Smith, Superinten- 
dent of Missions of the Southern Presbyterian Church, 
cites an instance of a certain mountain county that has 
a population of more than eleven thousand. Of the 
two thousand five hundred and thirty-nine men of voting 
age in this county, thirty-one per cent are illiterate. 
The school population of that county is four thousand 
four hundred and eighteen, and of these only two thou- 
sand five hundred and sixty-six are enrolled in the 
schools. The average daily attendance is one thousand 
nine hundred and forty-nine, only forty-four per cent of 
the school population. During the excitement caused 
by Halley's Comet, an old gentleman in Knott County 
was in the habit of calling this celestial wonder the 
"comic." Some one said to him, "John, what makes 
you call it the 'comic' ?" The old gentleman answered : 
"I let ye know I believe in callin' things what I want to. 



The Kentucky Highlanders 



41 



A feller cain't talk aroun' here without somebody rectm 
him I let ye know I ain't no grammatical. 

U is a lamentable fact that more money .s bemg ex- 
pended for the education of foreign-born children m the 
Urge cities of our country than for the education of the 
Anglo-Saxons in the Southern mountains Which , 
worth more to this nation, the virile and sturdy stock of 
rhighlands-uncontaminated by the vices and attrac- 
ions of civilization in our greater cities-or the thousands 
of foreigners that pour into our country monthly by way 

°^"T:Iute'pt-L^ntThirkie.d again -'The mountain 

people a're of f^ne mental capacity. A «- "J ^^-.'/^i 
a deep student of character once said of them . They 
need only an introduction to civilization to prove them- 
elves equal to any men in the world I regard them a^ 
he finest rough material in the world and one of them 
modeled into available shape is worth to the world a 
dozen ordinary people.' And yet today hundreds o 
thousands of these patriotic Americans are more ignorant 
and more destitute of the opportunities which go with 
"ducaUon than any other ^o^y of Anglo^axon peop 
nn the face of the earth." President Thirkield goes 
urther v hen he says that these three millions of patriotic, 
un o rupted American highlanders may be needed some 
day to safeguard the destiny of this nation-its repubi- 
can institutions, against un-A-ericanized foreigner In 
view of these things, here is an opportunity to inve t 
capital for the preservation and enlightenment of Amen- 

can manhood. Frnst is 

No one will question the great work Dr. Frost is 

doing in Berea College. There are other institutions of 



42 The Kentucky Highlanders 

learning in the mountains of Kentucky whose work can 
not be praised too highly. Such an instance, and the 
most notable one of its kind, not only in the Kentucky 
mountains but in America, is the W. C. T. U. School, 
located at Hindman, in Knott County, forty-one miles 
from the railroad at the time it was founded. It is an 
industrial, manual training, and high school, and from 
three to four hundred pupils are enrolled during each 
year. One needs only to visit Hindman and see the 
great work those noble, self-sacrificing women from all 
parts of the Union are doing, to be convinced that the 
work is worth while. Another notable instance is the 
Oneida Baptist Institute, founded by "Burns of the 
Mountains," at Manchester, in Clay County. 

The mountaineers are so anxious for their children to 
receive an education that they send them from different 
counties to attend the W. C. T. U. School, and many of 
them have to be turned off because there is not sufficient 
room and equipment. The school, from time to time, has 
had as instructors talented young women from Vassar, 
Wellesley, Bryn-Mawr, Brown University, Columbia, 
Harvard, and Michigan and Yale, besides colleges in the 
South. These instructors accept positions in the school 
at a financial sacrifice, for they could make elsewhere 
many times the salary paid them at Hindman. 

As an example of what the W. C. T. U. School has 
done for the mountains of Kentucky — aside from the 
moral influence it has had toward blotting out the liquor 
interests from the county — look at this: Knott County, 
for the last five or six years, has sent more young men 
and women to the colleges and universities of Kentucky 
and elsewhere than any other county in Kentucky, in 



The Kentucky Highlanders 43 

proportion to the population, and in consideration of the 
lack of opportunities of that county. In June, 1911, 
about a dozen young men and women of Knott County 
were graduated from the various colleges and universities 
— classical, medical, law, agriculture, normal, manual 
training, and business -of Kentucky. This is a remark- 
able showing, and attests the great work being done by 
the W. C. T. U. School, especially when we consider that 
Knott County is about the poorest county in Kentucky 
financially and in many other ways. 

WHAT OF THE FUTURE ? 

It is interesting to know that a great many of the 
Mountaineers thatfinish up in the colleges leave Kentucky. 
The migratory instinct is beginning to lay hold of the 
younger generation of Mountaineers, as well as they love 
their native highlands. Whole families are migrating 
toward the West, to such states as Missouri and Texas, 
and above all to Oklahoma. Sometimes as many as fifty 
and seventy-five depart together. Why are they doing 
this ? The younger generations are beginning to take 
advantage of the many opportunities the great outside 
world offers to them— but back of this there is a stronger 
and more convincing reason — the increasing population 
of the mountains, which necessitates the parceling out of 
smaller tracts of land, from year to year, by parent to 
son. Again, because of the lack of improved methods of 
farming and agriculture, much of the mountain lands 
have long since become unproductive. Add to these 
things the fact that capitalists and speculators are buying 
up hundreds of thousands of acres of mountain lands. 



44 The Kentucky Highlanders 

and you have an idea of why the mountaineer is beginning 
to migrate westward. The Consolidation Coal Company 
of West Virginia, now owns more than one hundred 
thousand acres of land in Letcher, Pike, Johnson, Knott 
and other counties. The Northern Coal & Coke Com- 
pany, of which J. C. C. Mayo, the mountain millionaire 
of Paintsville, Kentucky, is the organizer, owns thousands 
of acres. Other companies have extensive holdings on 
lands, minerals, oil, etc. 

Is it a wonder, then, that the Mountaineer is begin- 
ning to look sorrowfully back upon his native hills as he 
journeys westward ? But not every Mountaineer stays 
out of Kentucky when he gets out. It is difificult for 
him to thoroughly accustom himself to a new country in 
the West, and he often comes back, "stranded," to 
become a renter on the property that was once his. One 
man from Knott County became infected with the West- 
ern fever, "asked of his father his substance," and went 
to Oklahoma to launch himself out into the cotton indus- 
try. It was too much for him, and ere many moons had 
passed, he sent this plaintive wail back home, which sums 
up the typical Mountaineer's nostalgia: "You cain't 
make much money out here unless you pick cotton, and 
then you cain't make none. I'm a-comin' back home! 
that's no d— lie." 

A well-known railroad man sums up the future situa- 
tion in Eastern Kentucky in these words, translated from 
a distich of Vergil : 

"Thus ye, O birds, build nests, but not for yourselves; 
Thus ye, O sheep, bear fleeces not your own; 
Thus ye, O bees, fill hives, but not your own; 
Thus ye, O oxen, the yoke for others must bear." 



